fountain, records that it was “humbly erected ... in grateful Acknowledgement of the Divine Mercy, That has since raised this Town, Like the Phoenix from its Ashes, to its present flourishing and beautiful State.”  Several lives were lost in this disaster and the great church of SS.  Peter and Paul perished with everything that previous fires had spared.  The present erection is well enough as a specimen of the Classic Renaissance, but need not detain us.  At one time Blandford was a town of various industries, from lace making to glass painting, but it is now purely an agricultural centre.

[Illustration:  BLANDFORD.]

Blandford St. Mary is the suburb on the west side of the Stour.  The Perpendicular church has a tower and chancel belonging to a much earlier period.  A former rector was an ancestor of the great Pitt, and one of the family—­“Governor” Pitt, is buried in the north aisle.  The family lived at Down House on the hills to the westward.  A more ancient family, the d’Amories, lived at Damory Court near the town.  The famous Damory’s Oak is no more.  Its hollow trunk served as shelter for a whole family who were rendered homeless by the great fire.  An old barn not far from the Court is said to have been a chapel dedicated to St. Leonard; it still retains its ecclesiastical doors and windows.

[Illustration:  MILTON ABBEY.]

The seven miles of undulating and dusty road westwards from Blandford, that we have partly traversed from Winterbourne Strickland, leads to Milton Abbas, a charming village surrounded by verdured hills and deep leafy combes.  Here is the famous Abbey founded by King Athelstan for Benedictines.  The monks’ refectory, all that remains of the conventual buildings, indicates the former splendour of the establishment.  The abbey church, built in the twelfth century, was destroyed during a thunderstorm after standing for about two hundred years; the present building is therefore a study in Decorated and Perpendicular styles.  It is, after Sherborne and Wimborne, the finest church in Dorset.  The pinnacled tower is much admired, but the shortness of the building detracts from its effectiveness.  It is not certain that the church ever had a nave, though the omission seems improbable.  The interior is usually shown on Thursdays, when the grounds of the modern “Abbey” are open to the public.  Within the church the fifteenth-century reredos, the sedilia and stalls, and the pre-Reformation tabernacle for reserving the consecrated elements (a very rare feature) should be noticed.  Two ancient paintings of unknown age, probably dating from the early fifteenth century, and several tombs, complete the list of interesting items.  The ancient market town that once surrounded the Abbey was swept away when the mansion was erected in 1780, so that the present village is of the “model” variety and was built by the first Earl of Dorchester soon after his purchase of the property over one hundred and fifty years ago.  Church, almshouses and inn, all date from the same period.  Time has softened the formality of the plan, and Milton is now a pleasant old-world place enough, somnolent and rarely visited by the stray tourist, but well worthy of his attention.  The church contains a Purbeck marble font from the abbey, but otherwise is as uninteresting as one might expect from its appearance.  Milton was originally Middletown from its position in the centre of Dorset.